Ma is more in favour of holding peace talks considered by the Chinese government. But the president-elect has said he would only consider signing a peace deal with China, if it stopped aiming missiles at Taiwan.

Tara Joseph-Hui reports.

The digital march of Penguin Books

Mar 18 - The 73-year-old book company is launching an Alternate Reality Game in its latest effort to engage readers through new technologies.

The digital writing project called We Tell Stories will see six Penguin authors create six stories for an online audience over a six week period. Readers are invited to search for clues within the innovative tales, which will lead them to a seventh story hidden somewhere on the internet. The initiative involves Booker-shortlisted Mohsin Hamid, bestselling author Nicci French and popular teen fiction author Kevin Brooks.

Reuters European Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan reports.

Eggstravagant Easter eggs

Mar 20 - A 30-kilogramme egg is among the luxury items on sale this Easter.

Chocaholics can now be treated to the equivalent of 5000 bars of chocolate, in the form of a huge egg.

The egg, which has been a popular attraction, is on sale at London department store, Selfridges.

Basmah Fahim reports.

Remember that our main goals are to:- Summarize the main content of the story- Express some personal opinions in response to the stories and issues- Make some predictions based on the content of the story

Good luck and look forward to seeing you again on Thursday evening!- Jason

Last edited by Jason Renshaw on Wed Apr 02 2008, 19:38; edited 1 time in total

Taiwan's presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou won the presidential election, getting the congratulations of U.S. President George W. Bush . Bush reportedly regards Ma's win as a fresh opportunity for both sides ,China and Taiwan, to resolve their differences. Taiwan's president-elect Ma promised to work for a century of peace and prosperity. He also promised to improve relations with China, which still claims sovereignty over Taiwan. I'm of the opinion that the sovereignty issue seems to be the most touchy issue across Taiwan. There have been deep-rooted hostilities since Taiwan split from the mainland, so Ma could be a peace-maker in this situation.

Prediction:

I can predict some change of the triangular ties among those countries-the U.S.,China and Taiwan. Ma declared "unprecedented" visit to Washington before his formal taking office on May 20. It is said that the U.S. is in dilemma as to whether to accept his offer or not. It is likely that, if he gets a permission, it will be a turning point in Taiwan's diplomatic development. Taiwan will want its identity to be respected and eagerly want to confirm its diplomatic status on the world stage.

China has threatened an invasion if Taiwan declares independence and this showed good cause for building up military power in China. But now, Washington will try to provide their weapons to Taiwan and put pressure on Beijing. As president-elect Ma doesn't want Taiwan to gain independence from China "for now", Washington expects China to adjust their military power by cutting down to size.

Ma promised to work to improve trade, tourism and transport links. According to the news report, Taiwan will open a door wide to tourists from China in July. There will be a non-stop Taiwan-Beijing flight as well. By doing these, he intends to accelerate economic development and make Taiwan "the hub of finance and distribution industry" in East Asia. His economic plans have already been estimated as feasible by some economic experts .Taiwan , which was one of the "Four Dragons" in East Asia including Korea, Hongkong and Singapore in 1980s, is going through economic slump now but who knows when Taiwan will catch up with us? - Taiwan is such a dark horse!

OpinionAs time has changed dramatically, the way we live has also deeply been influenced by the change in this society. Especially the advent of Internet and high-technolohgy has changed every single aspects of our lives. Reading cannot be an exception. I'm of the opinion that Penguin Book's innovative way to tell a story using the internet will attract many young readers who are familiar with computers and high-tech gadgets. In addition, thier story is not predetermined, so readers can make up the story with their own choices, which will achieve the ulimate goal of writer -reader interaction in the text.

PredictionUsing this methodology, reading education will change. It doesn't have to be boring and hard anymore. Children will enjoy reading like on-line games and thier reading expericences will automatically record in the computer files which are easily assessed and reported. However, paper back versions connat be neglected. Teachers and parents should hit the balance between this on-line and paperback version for the best educational benefits.

I'm of the opinion that the chef must be genius. How could she think of making a giant dazzling egg! It catches everyone's eye who passes by and eventually promotes the sale. Although it takes a lot of time and effort to make that, she doesn't need to spend a penny to advertise her product. Even Reuters are reporting this to the people all over the world!

My prediction is that every year the more luxurious easter eggs will be presented. It's almost the same way as Victoria Secret advertises their lingerie. Every year, it presents jeweled lingerie. Actually, no one would wear it because it's too expensive and uncomfortable. However, it does help promote the sale because after they see the luxurious lingerie, their standard of reasonable price went up. Likewise, after people see giant dazzling egg, they may think that it's O.K. to spend more money on buying easter eggs that they thought before.

I'm of the opinion that every national election of the president is very important thing in every country. All the people's voting makes the country a wholly different one. According to this video article, Taiwan's new presidential candidate Ma insisted that he would have a strong relationship with the China government in a peaceful manner. I also think that the relationship with other countries is the most important matter, so in establishing diplomatic relations with other countries, they should take a cautious and prudent attitude. So candidate Ma's commitment seems to make Taiwan's people think that the economic and political condition of the country will be much better. I heard that if Ma wins the election, the Taiwan's government and regime will get changed to the peaceful regime in 8 years. So after being finished the election, I want the new regime to make the country a very peaceful place to live in.

My prediction is that the Tibet demonstration will have a negative influence on changing the Taiwan's regime. The candidate Ma insisted that he would make a good relationship with China, but many people of the country concern about China's lockdown to the Tibet demonstration. Though Ma said they would be in a good relation in terms of economic and political condition, China government performed armed suppression so Taiwan's people will worry about coming regime. If the China government doesn't slove the matter in a peaceful manner, the people of Taiwan will keep worrying about their new regime. Also they will demand Ma to govern the country in a much more difficult and peaceful way.

Last edited by Han Kyoung Jae on Wed Apr 02 2008, 09:48; edited 1 time in total

Opinion : I'm of the opinion that the story given in the news is absolutely funny. In Korea, I can probably hear this one from the world news channel around the Easter. Huge eggs as a gift for a family are not an appropriate idea, I think. In Korea, we also use the eggs for the Easter, but I don't know why. The Easter means the resurrection from death. The original story is that Jesus was crucified on the cross and after three days, he was raised from death by God Father. Somehow, however, I may connect the resurrection with the fact that chicken crack out of the eggs. And what are we doing with boiled eggs? That's why I mentioned I have no idea with the eggs.But if someone wants to celebrate the Easter in that way, I don't mind at all. One thing I am a bit bothered is that human society seems to be led by the commercial ads, so that loads of money are spent by the people, especially youngsters. I am so concerned about that. Unlike the Easter's celebration, other events such as St. valentine's day, white day, black day and so on are getting bigger than ever. People might want to be treated like being speical.If I say more about the events we have through the year, it will give me a lot of complications and stress.

Predition:My predition is that in the western countires, there might have had a great deal of trades between consumers and producers. And the consumption of the trades can increase in the following years because advertisers of companies try to attract people more than the previous years. In western society which is different from our society, the religious atmosphere is all around so that it influences all generations for celebration. In korea, like the Christmas, we are celebrating the Easter without any religious matter.

Liz wrote: I'm of the opinion that the chef must be genius. How could she think of making a giant dazzling egg! It catches everyone's eye who passes by and eventually promotes the sale. Although it takes a lot of time and effort to make that, she doesn't need to spend a penny to advertise her product. Even Reuters are reporting this to the people all over the world!

My prediction is that every year the more luxurious easter eggs will be presented. It's almost the same way as Victoria Secret advertises their lingerie. Every year, it presents jeweled lingerie. Actually, no one would wear it because it's too expensive and uncomfortable. However, it does help promote the sale because after they see the luxurious lingerie, their standard of reasonable price went up. Likewise, after people see giant dazzling egg, they may think that it's O.K. to spend more money on buying easter eggs that they thought before.

I like your opinion because I haven't thought about making my own chocolett eggs. If I do this, I definitely don't need to buy any. And It might be true that other special events like St. Valentine's day and white day, I don't have to buy one. But I need time to make something for my loving wife and child.^^

First of all, I would say, after browsing the Penguin homepage, this is splendid technology . By using this new technology, Penguin Books can make their publishing company more famous and attract many people to visit their website, I am sure.

On their site, http://www.penguin.co.uk/ , there are many linkages such as We Tell Stories http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/, Facebook , Twitter and Tasters. Because of my insufficient ability of English, I can't totally understand all of the programs and the way to handle this program but I could know that this is very interesting and exciting offering of Penguin Books.

People who were annoyed by going to the book store will enjoy this way of reading and People who would like to go to the book store will also like this way of reading and book shopping. I'm of the opinion that this is good way of not only saving time for going to the store and finding out the right book but also having easy access to the book.

In terms of We Tell Stories, as Penguin Books director predicted, people who were addicted to this programs will visit this site week after week and want to know the next story(seventh story) anxioiusly. Moreover, people who visit their site have more chances to buy thier products and use their programs whatever they are. As they say, my prediction is that both adult and young pepole will like this new technology.

As for Facebook, I think it's very good way to catch popurity. Sometimes even when there are books on website, I prefer to go to the off-line book store to see the contents and some short story line such as how the story started and who is the main character, etc. People like me will like this kind of service of Penguin Books.

The only thing that I would suggest is the idea that if they made it real "We tell the stories", it might have been more genuine and interesting to people who have various tastes. When I read some part of the story, there was a map and an icon which moves, then I thought what if someone really read the story for me?! It will be much more funny and realistic. Of course there should be options whether to use the voice telling or not. Anyway, I think that more and more book stores will use this way of using the cutting-edge technology.

Lee yujin wrote:OpinionAs time has changed dramatically, the way we live has also deeply been influenced by the change in this society. Especially the advent of Internet and high-technolohgy has changed every single aspects of our lives. Reading cannot be an exception. I'm of the opinion that Penguin Book's innovative way to tell a story using the internet will attract many young readers who are familiar with computers and high-tech gadgets. In addition, thier story is not predetermined, so readers can make up the story with their own choices, which will achieve the ulimate goal of writer -reader interaction in the text.

PredictionUsing this methodology, reading education will change. It doesn't have to be boring and hard anymore. Children will enjoy reading like on-line games and thier reading expericences will automatically record in the computer files which are easily assessed and reported. However, paper back versions connat be neglected. Teachers and parents should hit the balance between this on-line and paperback version for the best educational benefits.

You gave me such a good imagination to deal with reading problems. Actually students are very bored whenthey read their textbook.( actually me, too ) But if there are some textbooks like this, they will enjoy much more and like to read their textbook. As you said, they love using computer and doing internet games. Yes~~~ of course, it will not be a textbook, if they can make story by themselves, as we did last class.^^Hopefully someday, I wish I can manage that kind of reading classroom with those interesting "textbook"

Oh! I know that as you said, paper books are also important and students shoud be trained to read both paper books and internet books ^__________^* I will try to help them.

Last edited by jihyun on Tue Apr 01 2008, 13:03; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : grammar!!)

Opinion: I'm of the opinion that the big and expensive Easter eggs have both sides -good and bad. They are good because they are means of celebrating Easter. They can also boost the festivity. They catch the eyes of people and let them think about Easter once more.

But there are also problems about them. First I think sometimes they cannot be real and true presents. Being expensive is not bad all the time. But some people put more importance on money than love and friendship in the presents. Moreover they can make people think more expensive and bigger one is better. We would find that people pursue money instead of thinking of the meaning of Eater. Second the poor can feel deprived in compare with the rich. All the people must share the same amount of happiness and fun on the day like Easter. But I think rich people are easier to be more satisfied and happier with their ability to buy that kind of expensive present. Poor people can blame themselves on their lack of money.

Prediction:

I predict that there are few people who spend money in the expensive eggs just because their prices are too high. People can just see them and envy the rich who afford to buy them. Even rich people might be reluctant to buy it. A Chocolate egg is not eternal. Instead they can buy jewelry and clothes.

But chefs will keep making it. They can make a lot of money if it is sold. And they want to feel achieved after several hours' hardworking and enjoy their products get attention from people.

Opinion:Nowadays, there is another issue concerned with China. The one is the riot in Tibet and the other is the new president of Taiwan. According to the news, Taiwanese novel president want to have peaceful relationship with mainland China. He claimed he wants to manage the relationship on economical and political with mainland china if Chinese government do not threaten Taiwanese. I think apart from Taiwan , China is very resourceful country to have convention with. So every country would like to have good realationship though. Therefore, I think it is reasonable for Taiwanese president to say so. However, the newly elected president should consider about the current lockdown in Tibet. Because if Chinese government conquered the Tibetan affair by force or any ways, Taiwan can be the next target to be conquered. As I have known, Chinese think Taiwan belongs to China. Though, China has abundant resources to take advantage of, Taiwan should have unyielding position about their country.

Prediction :Taiwanese government hasnomical agreement with Chinese government, and Taiwanese can have benefits from that. They hire cheap labors in China and make lots of factories in China. On the other hand, Taiwanese government do not involve in Tibetan affair. They have defendant positon on Tibet's event. They got criticised by world wide organizations. However, they cannot help intervening between China and Tibet. And then, Taiwan new leader make Taiwanese government be cleanly, and the country has developed a lot.

Han Kyoung Jae wrote:I'm of the opinion that every national election of the president is very important thing in every country. All the people's voting makes the country a wholly different one. According to this video article, Tiwan's new presidential candidate Ma insisted that he would have a strong relationship with the China government in a peaceful manner. I also think that the relationship with other countries is the most important matter, so in establishing diplomatic relations with other countries, they should take a cautious and prudent attitude. So candidate Ma's commitment seems to make Tiwan's people think that the economic and political condition of the country will be much better. I heard that if Ma wins the election, the Tiwan's government and regime will get changed to the peaceful regime in 8 years. So after being finished the election, I want the new regime to make the country a very peaceful place to live in.

My prediction is that the Tibet demonstration will have a negative influence on changing the Tiwan's regime. The candidate Ma insisted that he would make a good relationship with China, but many people of the country concern about China's lockdown to the Tibet demonstration. Though Ma said they would be in a good relation in terms of economic and political condition, China government performed armed suppression so Tiwan's people will worry about coming regime. If the China government doesn't slove the matter in a peaceful manner, the people of Tiwan will keep worrying about their new regime. Also they will demand Ma to govern the country in a much more difficult and peaceful way.

Throuth your opinion and prediction, I could find we have a little bit different aspects of Taiwan, but most of them are common~^^. I totally agree with your statement Taiwanese government should be cautious and prudent attitude to have diplomatic relations. Your opinion is very reasonable~. I haven't think in military aspects, it was very good prospect, it encourage my prediction. And the thing I appreciated is you are considered with regime aspects which I haven't reached as well. Your opinion and prediction is very gooood and it gives me a lot of information.

As not a christian, I don't have much knowledge about this ritual relating to Easter eggs. Despite unfamiliar customs to me, even most koreans, it is true that events in a church are pleasing enough to attract people's interest. In my case, I had a couple of experiences in paying a visit to a church by following my friends. At that time, my intention was not for the celebration of Christ, but out of curiosity. On Easter, a church provides a variety of foods for anyone who comes to a church. I was given several eggs at a church, not knowing the special meaning of them. As I grow up, I realized that the each meaning of eggs and Christ' birth was involved in the same principle; Eggs represent the birth of new creatures and the process of incubation is alike to the rebirth of Christ. I'm of the opinion that special eggs which are decorated with a great deal of chocolate are elaborately made to inform many people of the celebration of Christ's rebirth as eggs get much popularity. In other words, they emphasize the holy meaning of Jesus' rebirth, as newly born creature tries to get out of the hard shell which seems to be a hardship to a chick.

At the beginning, simple eggs developed to the various types, which consisted of wood, silver, gold, or jewel. After many changes to eggs, chocolate eggs are finally released to the public. However, there may be some people who are opposed to the use of chocolate eggs because of its prevailing commercial purpose. A wide range of chocolate eggs is preferred by big business owners because their peculiar characteristics attract many possible customs, which is followed by a big profit. I also think that these meaningful eggs may be contributed to the poor who are neglected as outsiders on our society. By doing so, a few bad reputations caused by extravagancy(too much high price) could be weakened.

(prediction)

These days, many people would like to stick out and get much attention from others. I think that making various types of Easter eggs is one of good examples in this respect. Several materials are already used in making eggs: wood, precious metals, and jewels. My prediction is that producing an empty egg would be a good idea, which is a effective way to secretly keep one's wishes to the God. It's also likely that small private things such as rings or pictures are fit in it. In my case, if I had a chance to put my own paper in an empty egg, I would write down my hope. My words in the paper would say that I want to meet him again I did fall in love with, whatever we hurt each other.

On the one hand, I am of the opinion that these giant and luxurious Easter chocolate eggs are brilliant and amazing. I think this is one of the greatest marketing strategies. These eggs are special enough to grab an attention of numerous potential customers. Who wouldn't enjoy looking exceptionally tremendous and delicately decorated Easter eggs? Even I definitely would visit and see it, if I were in London. This would be perfect for people who want to have a special and memorable Easter with unique and astonishing eggs if they are willing to spend a great deal of money on Easter eggs.

On the other hand, I am of the opinion that not many people are interested in real purchase of these eggs. The eggs might be dazzling, but they do not look like worth the price. It sure can be great home decoration and can feast your eyes. However, the Easter egg is not ordinate ornament but just chocolate, which means it may melt or spoil at the end. I doubt how many people would like to pay a small fortune for an eye candy which lasts only several months.

My prediction is that these eggs will attract a lot of potential customers. After its great success, plenty will benchmark this. It is also likely that this department store will make massive gingerbread man and house for Christmas, looking forward to another big hit.

I like the idea that makes average people participate in making tales with famous authors. People might feel like they are working with them and they are really respected as special readers. As time goes by, technology and trend are changing faster and faster. And according to popular trend and development of the technology, all the business sectors have to follow suit. There is no more number one position in any part these days. Everything changes so fast. Thus we all have to upgrade ourselves and all the business and markets also have to change to suit the taste of potential consumers to survive.

I also want to suggest a good idea making a full story participating as many readers as possible on line. Like we did in the class last week, all the readers who visit the web site can access and add stories or edit them. Then it could boost the popularity of the company and it could be a chance to let a creative writers out in the world.

prediction

I think the reaction about allowing the free download of all the penguin books would be explosive. These days more and more people like to buy books on the Internet. However, we can only see the contents and just a few pages of the books. We don't have much time to look through the book we want to buy throughly now. I heard people say buying books on line is much cheaper and convenient but sometimes they fail to find the exact book they want only through the names of the books. So it's natural to let potential customers of on line book stores check and preview at least one chapter. However, from the viewpoint of writers it could be breach of copyright. If we can download one chapter of all the books we can use it as our own. So some writers or association of writers might protest against the move. We'll see.

opinion : At first when I heard this news, it was amazing! Although this giant egg might be considered as useless thing I really want to say those who participate in making it are very creative people. Have you ever thought like them? In my case, I haven't. Besides, their passion is the most respected thing. A few years ago, I just tried to make my own chocolate. Actually, it wasn't creative one but covering cookies with liquid chocolate. On them, I sprinkled almonds. Nevertheless it was very simple way I had to concentrate on them. Really hard working.. Based on my experience I could imagine how the cook works hard. I'd like to show my respects to her. Practice makes perfect!!

prediction : It is a good idea to show people something specific. My prediction is that people in other religions would make their own symbols as this giant egg represents Easter and Jesus's rebirth. Using advertised papers, walking around to say their belief, or raising some picket written "believe our religion", these are sometimes, evoke some burden and make people avoiding/disgusting to them. However, in this giant egg's case, people are interested in it rather than ignore it. They can show their belief and passion/efforts which people guess through sybmols.

It was interesting for me to see giant chocolate eggs, but, at the same time, I felt bitter to think about the real meaning of Easter. Easter is the day that people celebrate to think about Jesus's resurrection, but I feel like this core meaning is fading away year after year. Instead, there are only commercial things going around on this day. Appreciating the beautiful eggs is really wonderful, but before talking about the price of the eggs and the time that was taken for making it, I think people should think it is a meaningful day for certain religions.

[Prediction]

My prediction is that there will be much bigger and more decorated chocolate egg will come out next Easter. I feel like year after year, people are trying to compete by showing better eggs than previous years. Moreoever, the price will be higher to think about commodity price rise. Also I think after displaying the giant chocolates, I guess people might use it for good things like donating them to orphanage to think about the meaning of the day.

Opinion: As another madarin speaking country sees its new leader, people's attention has been focused on Ma's plan on relationship with its counterpart. Historically, after World War , as China gained membership of nuclear club or a seat in the Councile of Security in U.N. China did not recognize Tiawan as a legitmate government and consistently pursued'One China". It is very similar with South Korea's relationship to North Korea. The South's constitution states that territory of Republic of Korea contains korean peninsula and island belong to it which means we see North Korea as a group,illegally occupying north part of our land. However:at the level of reality, we bears diffent postion. The same hads been going with these two country. I am the opninon of that Ma is going to put poltical issue aside and trying to make the best use of capital and labor from the main land to boost economy. Sensitve political issues between two countries would be like" Don't ask Don'tell " for a while. Both sides would be very sestive to mention polyical issue that probaly put negative effect on their close economic ties.

Prediction: Security situation in this area will face another phase. As new leader of island indicated in his public pledge ; he embraced the idae " progressive improvement"with main land rather than ultimate seperation during the campaign. And it worked. ultimate seperation.

I'm of the opinion that this is a splendid idea, considering the reality people around world read much less books than before. People are getting used to an easy way and a faster thing just like internet and etc. To those who are always chased by time, selecting books in a bookstore might be regarded as one of time consuming things. So, this technology by Penguin books is good enough to intrigue those people with some brilliant ideas in it. The connection between stories is quite unique and inviting, also they are absolutely visible, well categorized according to readers' tastes or their ages, and they're also quite portable with easy downloading system to readers' blackberries or something. Moreover, that's quite effective the company can take advantege of getting a chance for the advertisement of their various books through this.

My prediction is that this new tech might get the attention of those who hardly read a book and motivate them to read more, but people who enjoy the pleasure like the sweet smell of new-brand book or even the tactile pleasures of turing a page that can only be provided by the conventional thing still might hesitate to convert to the tech thing. However, it is a marvellous idea as the new suggestion for the conventional thing ignored by people.

Now I want to say eggs can be a masterpiece of skill and workmanship. As an Easter tradition, I have seen and given a variety of colorful, decorated eggs, but this definitely takes the cake. Having spent 70 hours creating a piece of work, a real show stopper, the female chef, I would like to call her the Hotel Chocolate Easter bunny, truly deserves to be called a craftsman. Thanks to her, some people might think that there's a special selection of sophisticated and discerning eggs to choose from.

Iím of the opinion that in the spirit of Easter, the hotel has been doing quite a good job to display a chocolate master piece, which means, in a sense, by just paying a visit to this hotel for the egg, some families donít need to join egg hunt.

As for the 30-kilogramme egg on sale at the department store, I wonder who is willing to spend $ 1,000 on a chocolate egg. If somebody shows up to buy the egg, I will want to know for whom he or she is buying and what the occasion is.

Prediction:

Easter is over, but the incredibly edible Easter slab will draw a lot of attention to the hotel so that it could be emerged as a must-see, the British chocolate phenomenon. For the energetic amongst us, grown ups and little ones alike, itís a definite crowd pleaser. If someone hopes to make special Easter for anyone else regardless of the money, this luxury item is sure to impress. The gorgeous egg is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of whoever receiving it. However, one thing to be concerned is that itís too big to eat.

I'm of the opinion that relationship between countries is more and more being determined by economic sense. Taiwan has maintained a cold relationship with China because of ideological difference. The two countries went through an ideological conflict and many people were sacrificed sticking to their belief. As priority moved from ideology to economy, China began to accept capitalism partially and grew fast economically. China became economic blue ocean in the world trade market, and many countries wanted to maintain a good relationship with China. The world can't deny the power of China any longer. Recently some countries criticized China because of the genocide in Tibet, and said they would boycott the Olympic games. But others including several developed countries maintained neutral attitude because China was rising big buyer of their products. There's no eternal friend or eternal enemy in relationship between countries. They only move for economic benefits.

Prediction:

China is growing faster and it is racing to be a world economic power. More and more countries are turning their eyes to Chinese market to boost their economy, and it's an unavoidable stream of the times. It will take some time to build stable friendship between Taiwan and China, but they will achieve it for economic benefits.

A 30-kilogramme egg!I've never seen and heard of that huge size of chocolate egg before. In my church, we usually share colored and decorated REAL egg with people as a present at Easter.The video says that the giant egg would be luxury present for family at Easter. But what they can do with that egg? It might be a tough work to eat it all. I am of the opinion that little egg is enough to celebrate to Easter and great gift to their family.I think that too many things are turning to a commercial success theses days. Although the huge cholate egg-maker intended to praise the Easter as making egg bigger and bigger, that is considered asthe luxury items for a present and it costs a lot!

My prediction is the egg can be a popular attraction item for short time due to its specialness ans uniqueness. Also, the biggest egg-making contest might be held every Easter to attract customers attention and money. But its popularity won't last so long because not everyone is willing to pay their big money just for an egg.

Last edited by Mi Jin Jeong on Thu Apr 03 2008, 07:42; edited 2 times in total

Opinion: The image of 'Penguin' that I have had so far is that it produces very long, difficult classical literature books. I have purchased some of them because the price was quite cheap and they are all good literaturary works but I hasitated to read them because it is hundreds of pages long and full of difficult sentences. Now, it seems to me the Penguin publishing company is trying to renovate its hard image into more friendly and entertaining one by making on-line story telling website. Actually I've visited the website(http://wetellstories.co.uk/) in which I tried a few things in it. I tell you that it's very amazingly different from other ordinary story telling websites. For example, in a fairy tale story section, you as a reader have a bit of options of how the story will be told. You can give names to the main characters at your disposal, and many other interesting options you can use. So I found it very entertaining, interesting, and educational as well. Also since the Penguin Tasters(http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/penguin_tasters/index.html) allows people to get access to the first chapter of some Penguin published books, which is in PDF file, readers who can read the contents of books a bit can make a more well-thought-out purchase instead of ordering any book and feeling disappointed after that.

Prediction: My prediction is that even though Penguin Publishing company is already well known around the globe, it will get more attention and reputation as a leading book service company as it attempts to promote Internet-based reading service, which is creative, unique, funny, and also, free of charge and, therefore, more Internet users will visit the website and like it.

I'm of the opinion that it's a brilliant idea that Penguin books is trying to attract the attention of potential customers (or readers) to reading by using the latest digital technologies and offering various online services.

I strongly believe that reading is one of the greatest habits we can have because, as all of us already know too well, we can learn, have so many valuable experiences indirectly which are not likely to happen in our real life, and develop our intellect while still having a lot of fun. So, in our school, we teachers are encouraging students to read a book for 10 minutes every morning before the first class starts and trying to make it an important part of students' daily routine. However, it seems like that these days many youngsters (and not few older people) are more interested in computer games or movies than books, which are more eye catching and fascinating visual-wise. So, sometimes it is very hard to make students interested in reading and get them to read only a few pages a day.

Therefore, it must be a clever idea to try to appeal to customers by developing a new way of reading as introduced in the report, which combines reading, computer games and some other latest technology like 'Google maps.' The new kind of reading looks more fun and exciting than the traditional one, and will be able to make curious readers visit the company's website for at least 6 weeks to read the whole story written by 6 different authors.

And it is another clever idea that the company provides various websites and online services for readers considering their age and different book tastes. Readers can share their opinions about books with others and get a lot of information about newly published books on those websites, which will eventually lead to the increase of the company's book sales and the total revenues.

My prediction is that the new kind of reading Penguin Books has developed will be definitely successful in attracting the public's attention and getting many people to visit their homepage. Other publishing houses inspired by Penguin Books will also try to offer useful online services and come up with brilliant ideas that potential readers might be interested in, so as to compete and boost their sales.

And, as the Internet has a great influence on every part of our lives, it will also play an more important role in the publishing industry - online book sales will be increased and e-books will get more popularity. However, still many readers want to stick to traditional ways of reading, so I quite doubt that e-books will ever replace books in print.